Comments (11)

… it was evident that the band wasn’t actually playing… even though band director Colonel Michael J. Colburn was conducting energetically and the band members mimicked blowing into their instruments.

How audacious! The Marine Corps is very dedicated in its service to the country, and its band is highly professional. The whole notion that they could not be trusted to actually play during the inauguration is a slap in the face to the Marine Corps, the band members and all it stands for.

Can you imagine the unmitigated gall of the White House events Dept. calling up the Marine Corp band’s general staff and saying… “We would like to have the Marine Corp band at the inauguration… but we don’t actually trust them to play. We prefer they play a MPEG file of the Star Spangled Banner and the band members just pretend to play while it’s running…”

I can just imagine the band members talking their grandchildren in 20 years from now…
“Yeah, Johnny, I didn’t actually play for President Obama’s inauguration, but we got to sit there and pretend to play. Oh it made us feel so proud!”

Kansas state law exempts sperm donors from child support only if the transaction is done through a doctor. This law is (presumably) for the child’s protection in the interest of discouraging would be parents from conceiving children not supported by both parents.

I think this whole case is kind of ridiculous. Isn’t the point of getting a sperm donor to just acquire an unencumbered inseminator or great genes, not to get a father? Yes, yes, “it takes two to make a baby” but if you had told this guy that legally he was agreeing to be a father, would he have done it? In this case, we are saying that if it was done with doctors, he would not be legally responsible but since they chose insemination through alternative means, like an at-home kit, that he is legally responsible?

I agree with what Evan said. Since when a sperm donor is required to financially support the baby? It’s called a DONOR for a reason. If sperm donors were financially responsible for these creatures then I can guarantee you that donation rates would decrease in the blink of an eye. It blows my mind they would even consider this for a trial case.

“Beyoncé was too busy practising for the Super Bowl to practice for the presidential inauguration. If that’s not a perfect commentary on America’s strange priorities in the second decade of the 21st century, I don’t know what is.”

Yeah, I think this says all I need to say on that subject. The problem wasn’t with the band…